Messages

Sally Gardens I believe

Looks like all the county men were out last night. Great result from Ballymena despite conceding two goals in the first ten minutes. I wonder how far Stewart is from playing again?

another round of fixtures tomorrow, will the county men all be back in action?

Is there a pitch up and down the country playable?

Sad news from Lamh Dhearg, Ryan Straney, senior footballer killed in car accident in Sydney. 96 year old man driving the wrong way up the motorway.

RIP Ryan, a superb young fella.

Any objections to Glenravel and Aldergroves inclusion in div 1 now? Both taking pts off top half teams?

Who objected to Glenravels inclusion? they were promoted from Div2. On Aldergrove, come back on here at the end of the league and summarise how they have performed. 'Top half team' is a very broad statement in a 16 team league

Did Rossa fail to field at the weekend?

Postponed due to a bad pitch

Awful news out of Moneyglass club today

Terrible! Bless the family and club, heart breaking altogether. 

[Laois]

Laois v Leitrim Laois by 8
Down v Westmeath Down by 6

Donegal v Armagh Donegal by 1
Derry v Dublin Dublin by 5

If we ever had a football sub committee  their first job should be to reduce division 1 to 8 teams. There are so many sub standard teams in there, at least 4 of them would be in Division 3/4 in any other county and it's doing no one any favours, them or other teams that strive for better.

Explain how having 8 teams would make the county better? A nice condescending tone from a Cargin man in his ivory tower.

Agree with IBS my point exactly,
In the same vein All Star can you explain for example how Cargin/Portglenone/Creggan playing Aldergrove (a team who couldnt gain promotion out of Division 2 on their own merit) makes the county better? No offence meant to anyone in Aldergrove by the way. Forget about scorelines in March i'm taking a wider view on it. Come the championship there will some seriously one sided games

Arguably Aldergrove have the best claim to be playing Div 1 out of the teams that benefitted from the league changes, finishing 2nd. Point taken though. All leagues have a gulf, Antrim is no different to leagues up and down the country. I don't think it will hurt the senior championship overly, as after the group stages it's your best 8 anyway. I think it benefits the weaker teams playing against higher quality. As MR2 said, we will see how it plays out

If we ever had a football sub committee  their first job should be to reduce division 1 to 8 teams. There are so many sub standard teams in there, at least 4 of them would be in Division 3/4 in any other county and it's doing no one any favours, them or other teams that strive for better.

Explain how having 8 teams would make the county better? A nice condescending tone from a Cargin man in his ivory tower.

Are Ballinderry and Lavey both division 2 and Intermediate or have I picked that up wrong?

Lavey are in Division 2 (relegated from Division 1 last season) and will play senior championship
Ballinderry are in Division 1 and will play in the intermediate championship (relegated from the senior championship last season)

Thanks Shawshank, appreciate it.
league and championship are not linked, they are 'decoupled'

Are Ballinderry and Lavey both division 2 and Intermediate or have I picked that up wrong?

[Derry]

Derry v Roscommon
Dublin v Tyrone
Kerry v Galway
Monaghan v Mayo

Cavan v Fermanagh
Cork v Armagh
Donegal v Meath
Kildare v Louth

Antrim v Wicklow
Down v Clare
Offaly v Limerick
Sligo v Westmeath

Carlow v London
Waterford v Laois
Wexford v Longford
Leitrim v Tipperary

Schools! Schools! Schools! That is why we are behind in development, any other answer is a by-product. We need a strong school in Belfast and a strong school in the SW. We need schools going out and bringing our best P7s to that school and developing them from there based on ability and promise, not club.

SW clubs are leading the way in Antrim at the minute and that's from exposure to that level, but we need a school where we aren't competing with Derry players and Antrim reaps all the benefit of players being developed. I was told 25 years ago by a prominent Armagh man this was our issue - and it still is today.

I must say this complete rubbish. The quality of coaching at club level in your youth, on the whole is not at the level required. No strategy to improve it. Nor will it improve in the absence of one, it rinse and repeat for years upon years.

You are deluded. It's the same Ulster coaching clinics that everyone goes to, and the Antrim contingent is always strong at them, as I have been to plenty over the years. So why is it all other counties come away better coaches but Antrim's don't? Every county in Ulster has at least one strong GAA school, except Antrim.

Aghagallon and the Derry side of Antrim have all come on leaps and bounds these past 5/10 years - if you dont think the proximity to strong schools has anything to do with then I've a bridge to Scotland to sell you.

Schools! Schools! Schools! That is why we are behind in development, any other answer is a by-product. We need a strong school in Belfast and a strong school in the SW. We need schools going out and bringing our best P7s to that school and developing them from there based on ability and promise, not club.

SW clubs are leading the way in Antrim at the minute and that's from exposure to that level, but we need a school where we aren't competing with Derry players and Antrim reaps all the benefit of players being developed. I was told 25 years ago by a prominent Armagh man this was our issue - and it still is today.

not much chat around the start of the league, who is the team to watch in each division?

who are the favourites to go down in division 1, will Glenravel, all saints or Naomh Seamus have enough to stay up, what about division 2 and 3 now they have been restructured, who has the best chance to make hay now the strongest teams from last year aren't there anymore?

Throw Moneyglass and Enda's in there too. I know there are a few travelling at Moneyglass and Naomh Seamus so they're probably favourites.

As for winning it - I couldn't look past Cargin or Portglenone, strongest teams on paper and not an overly large county contingent from either side to reduce their quality for the league. EL coming in to PG1 could cause more problems than it fixes.